my mom's chicken katsu

You don't mess with Grandma. Upon hearing that my son no longer ate cow, my Mom blithely says, "Oh well, I've got this chicken katsu he might like." No kidding! There were no leftovers, which is no mean feat in my mom's house, and my sister made a new batch the next day.

One of the other things this recipe taught me is that there are at least 4 different kinds of panko in Hawaii--regular (which is the only one I knew about), fine, corn and honey-flavored.Mom says to use a mixture of fine and regular for the proper crunchy texture/less oil balance. The easiest way to do this is to pour the panko into your dredging bowl, and crumple it up in your (very clean and dried) hands a little bit. You can also put some of the regular panko through a food processor but that makes one more dish to wash.